Without good business strategy, any brand programme will be superficial. It won’t work – at least not for long – and it won’t pay.

If you want a brand that is a real asset,there are a few simple steps to follow.

We reveal them here without fear of flooding the market in brand consultants for three reasons:

(1) Along with other seemingly simple activities – for instance, football or tennis – brand development is easy to talk about, but difficult to do well;

(2) Very few people will bother to heed this advice;

(3) Even with the discipline to follow these steps, it still takes courage, talent and creative vision to breathe life into any strategy.

Having a brand means developing – and projecting – a personality for your product or business.

As visible, as powerful, and as meaningful to your audiences as you can make it.

And don’t forget the little things.

It’s always surprising – particularly when advertising and other forms of‘long-distance’ promotion are so expensive – how little value some companies place on the powerful impression they make in close contact with actual customers.

Unsmiling staff; slow switchboards; inhospitable reception areas; dilapidated decor; a miscellany of coffee mugs; poorly presented letters… these certainly won’t suggest that there is a new spirit at work in your business. But putting them right will. And probably for less than the cost of a few ads.